Genesis names Lotterer and Derani as first drivers for 2026 WEC season

Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani are the primary drivers named for the brand new Genesis LMDh programme that may enter the 2026 World Endurance Championship.

Reigning WEC champion Lotterer and four-time Sebring 12 Hour winner Derani had been revealed within the official launch of the entry of Hyundai’s premium model into top-line sportscar racing.

The wide-ranging announcement in Dubai on Wednesday included the primary pictures of a automotive to be referred to as the Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar, a timeline for the growth of its programme into the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2027 and a tie-up between the German-based Hyundai Motorsport operation co-developing the automotive with ORECA and the French IDEC Sport race staff.

The partnership with IDEC will embody a programme in LMP2 within the European Le Mans Collection subsequent yr to organize for the WEC entry with a driver line-up together with Williams Method 1 refugee Logan Sargeant.

Lotterer and Derani will lead growth of the GMR-001 subsequent yr after which transfer into race seats with a staff to be referred to as Genesis Magma Racing in 2026.

The German, a three-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, is becoming a member of the Genesis programme following his departure from Porsche after eight years, which included campaigns within the WEC with the 919 LMP1 in 2017 and the 963 LMDh in 2023-24, in addition to three seasons in Method E with the manufacturing unit staff.

Genesis names Lotterer and Derani as first drivers for 2026 WEC season

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Andre Lotterer

Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Photographs

He described the transfer to Genesis as “the right match for me to channel my work, my expertise, ardour and motivation into a brand new venture with a staff of extremely formidable people”.

“I’m excited to begin engaged on this venture and construct a profitable future from the very starting,” added the 43-year-old.

Derani, 31, is shifting from IMSA after saying in the summertime that he supposed to depart the Motion Categorical Racing Cadillac squad following six seasons to hunt a brand new profession course.

”The ambition behind Genesis’s endurance racing venture and the observe file of these concerned was a chance I couldn’t refuse,” mentioned the Brazilian.

“As a driver, being concerned in a venture from the beginning is very rewarding.”

The official assertion from Genesis acknowledged that Lotterer and Derani might be “taking over technical growth duties” with the GMR-001 in 2025 however laid down no timeline for the graduation of testing.

#311 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-SeriesR: Pipo Derani

Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz

The P2 marketing campaign within the ELMS subsequent season with an ORECA-Gibson 07 run together with IDEC is being undertaken with an eye fixed on the arrival of the Genesis LMDh within the WEC the yr after.

Hyundai Motorsport president Cyril Abiteboul, who will act as staff principal of the sportscar squad as he has finished with the marque’s World Rally Championship staff, mentioned: “We’re elevating our circuit racing experience to a complete new degree as we put together to compete in a number of the world’s most difficult sequence.”

Sargeant will race the P2 entry along with three-time W Collection champion and Indy NXT race winner Jamie Chadwick and Porsche Supercup graduate Mathys Jaubert.

The trio had been described by Genesis as “a promising line-up of rising expertise”, which suggests they’re within the combine for race seats within the WEC squad in 2026.

Sargeant, who misplaced his F1 drive after August’s Dutch Grand Prix, already has sportscar expertise: he contested two ELMS races with the TF Sport-run Crew Turkey squad in 2021 in addition to three rounds within the Le Mans Cup assist sequence driving an Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo the identical yr.

Chadwick has additionally raced sportcars, successful the GT4 class of the British GT Championship in 2015.

The Magma part of the staff identify for Genesis’s WEC entry comes from the vary of idea automobiles launched by the producer.

Genesis Magma Racing will set up a base on the Paul Ricard circuit, adjoining to which ORECA and IDEC have their headquarters.

There are not any particulars as but of the configuration of the inner combustion part of the GMR-001’s powertrain. The hybrid unit, equipped collectively by Bosch, Willams Superior Engineering and Xtrac, is widespread to all to LMDh producers.

Genesis LMDh